There is a commonly cited problem with EVE: that all decisions are made in “smoke-filled rooms” between the same 10-15 people and no new players can enter into that arena. Have you ever considered why?

Before we’d continue, I’d like to point out that the above isn’t true. Every single player has chance to get into practically every alliance/coalition if he is persistent enough and by being there, increasing the options of the alliance leadership. If suddenly 10000 people would recognize that his true home is SOLAR fleet or Spacemonkeys Alliance, the map would change radically.

But there is a layer of truth in it. You won’t be the next The Mittani, Montolio, Vince Draken, Elo Knight or Shadoo, no matter how hard you try or how skilled you are. If we consider the infamous fails of some of them, it is surprising. I recognized the problem when I’ve read about the alt-gate. The answer “why can’t you get into the smoke filled room” is the same as “why can’t you be the next Chribba”.

I’ve been playing EVE for almost two years. I’ve never ever scammed anyone. I am pretty upfront in what I believe, no matter what others think. Yet I couldn’t start a supercap escrow service, even if I’d have much lower rates than Chribba.

The answer is “trust”. It’s not mathematically quantifiable. My scam rate is the same 0% as it’s for Chribba. Yet no one would believe me. Or more correctly no one would give me a chance. Why? Because Chribba is already there and he has proven himself. He took the position of “trustable guy” and until he leaves it, there is no other spot. It’s similar to being married. As long as you are OK in your marriage, you don’t even consider if others would be better and your wife could be replaced with gain. It only happens if your marriage is awful.

It doesn’t matter how hard Vince failed with the Falcon and how hard Elo failed when a total stranger sent him a screenshot of a PL titan with “PL Spy” literally written on it. It doesn’t matter that in these situations a 4x Civilian shield booster fit Mackinaw miner would have made a better choice. Unless they do something that makes them totally inacceptable, they stay, because they have already proven their loyalty to their group. They will not awox or steal. They earned the trust and no one gets a chance until they remove themselves from their position.

It’s not the same in the real world business. You don’t stick to the same shop until it closes or starting to sell absolutely inacceptable products. You try out other shops when they are nearby or if they have a sale. You try out new video games even when you are satisfied with your current one.

The reason is that the society enforces a level of trustworthiness on everyone. The other shop I try might have rude employees and low quality wares. But it is surely not like the shop in the Pulp Fiction where people are kidnapped into Zed’s torture chamber. They also won’t rob me and even if they sell me faulty products, I will be able to get a refund from them, because the law says so. The other video game might be lame, but surely doesn’t contain spyware. A level of decency is guaranteed, therefore I can safely try out others.

In EVE, it’s not true. Sure, X might show better judgment than Vince in the Falcon issue. But X might also be a Goon spy and Vince is surely not. X might lead our whole super fleet purposefully into a trap, while Elo only does it when he fails. X might rob anything and everything I had in the game, publish my chat logs, mails, lingerie pictures I carelessly sent him and my IP address and e-mail from the mumble server allowing people to find me in real life. There is no limit how much damage X can do to me in the game and the only thing I can do to prevent it is not trusting anyone who isn’t totally trustable, no matter how incompetent and annoying he is. Vince, Elo, Mittani and co have proven themselves in this aspect towards their group and no one in his right mind would risk a change.

Your options in EVE – unless you joined with an out of game group – are:

- Playing alone.

- Be the F1-monkey of people you know to be incompetent and asshole, but at least not spies.

If you want EVE to be somewhat social game, you need to establish some basic level of trustworthiness. I do not want (and due to alts cannot) remove spying. But the list of things needed to prevent a single guy destroying everything that thousands have built are bare minimum to make EVE grow.

Until it is implemented, the only real option besides the three above is what I’m building now: a loose cooperation of solo players who share a common goal, share information but don’t share their assets and don’t follow orders.

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